Cryptographic hash functions are commonly used for generating and verifying digital signatures, in order to provide integrity and authenticated access to digital data. A cryptographic hash function is applied on the digital data to generate a hash value, also referred to as message digest. The hash value is then signed, using a standard digital signature algorithm, together with the private key of a signer to generate a digital signature. The digital signature is attached to the digital data to obtain a digitally signed data. For verification of the digital signature, the digital data is passed through the same cryptographic hash function, used in the signature generation process, by a verifier to obtain the hash value. The digital signature from the digitally signed data is also passed through a digital signature verification algorithm along with the public key of the signer to obtain the hash value. If the hash values obtained from the hashing of digital data and the verification of the digital signature are identical, then the digital signature is verified to be a valid signature.